I'm a gentleman of leisure
And I'm a bit bored.
I've been a little busy of late to update Green Bamboo (the main one), and since I have nothing better to do with the blogspot version, I feel little compunction about boring the world with some trivia.
I've mostly been occupied with reading Charles Cotton's translation of Montaigne's Essays. Actually, I'm reading the 1711 and 1759 versions with occasional forays into Florio's translation of 1603 and Hazlitt's 19th century edition of Cotton. I find that what is unclear in one is often clear in the other so that if I start my reading with the 1711 version, I'll eventually switch to the 1759 edition and then go back to 1711 again. I'm not sure exactly what the relationship between 1711 and 1759 is. Because the latter appears to be a revised version, it doesn't, strictly speaking, appear to be Cotton's translation any longer. I found one footnote discussing how Cotton misunderstood what Montaigne had written, and from what I know about the French version, I think Peter Coste's edition appeared in 1724, too late for Cotton, who admits to being puzzled by Montaigne's sense at times, to have benefited from it.
Rather usefully, Montaigne's Essays in French are on a University of Chicago website, which I've consulted several times now. It includes images of pages with annotations in Montaigne's own hand in the margins. If I'm not much mistaken, it looks like the font is my favourite – Garamond; or if not, a font very similar to it. Of course, I'm not even slightly fluent in French so that I'm looking up individual sentences to see whether they'll help me understand the English better.
Google Books, from where I got the 1711 and 1759 editions, also has a preview version of Screech's 1993 translation published by Penguin. Since I'm only up to the nineteenth essay of Book I, I've been able to use that because it's an intelligible modern version – for the most part. Although Screech claims to have followed the French somewhat more closely than English would naturally allow, he'd managed to change one sentence to such a degree that the 18th century versions were instantly comprehensible where his caused confusion.
I'm not sure whether I find Montaigne's writing of interest because it strikes a chord with me, or because I'm bored and have a vague, exceedingly amateur interest in philosophy. I suspect that if I were in a different mood, some of Montaigne's essays would have me skipping past them. I can't see how Essay XIV That the obstinate Defence of a Place, not in Reason to be defended, deserves to be punished might interest the modern world; or Essay V and perhaps Essay VI. I'm fairly sure that it may be years before I ever finish reading all of the Essays unless I procure a modern translation.
I started reading the Essays because I didn't want to read The Collected Short Stories of Saki to an early death from cloying excess. Ironically, I started reading them because I felt I'd had enough of Victorian and Edwardian horror stories. But now, as a diversion from Montaigne, I've been writing some reviews for ..::lvl for about the first time in three years.
Speaking of links, I've updated mine. One or two of the new ones reflect my interests de jour, and I've removed one or two others which were either defunct or, I felt, no longer interesting or relevant.
I've mostly been occupied with reading Charles Cotton's translation of Montaigne's Essays. Actually, I'm reading the 1711 and 1759 versions with occasional forays into Florio's translation of 1603 and Hazlitt's 19th century edition of Cotton. I find that what is unclear in one is often clear in the other so that if I start my reading with the 1711 version, I'll eventually switch to the 1759 edition and then go back to 1711 again. I'm not sure exactly what the relationship between 1711 and 1759 is. Because the latter appears to be a revised version, it doesn't, strictly speaking, appear to be Cotton's translation any longer. I found one footnote discussing how Cotton misunderstood what Montaigne had written, and from what I know about the French version, I think Peter Coste's edition appeared in 1724, too late for Cotton, who admits to being puzzled by Montaigne's sense at times, to have benefited from it.
Rather usefully, Montaigne's Essays in French are on a University of Chicago website, which I've consulted several times now. It includes images of pages with annotations in Montaigne's own hand in the margins. If I'm not much mistaken, it looks like the font is my favourite – Garamond; or if not, a font very similar to it. Of course, I'm not even slightly fluent in French so that I'm looking up individual sentences to see whether they'll help me understand the English better.
Google Books, from where I got the 1711 and 1759 editions, also has a preview version of Screech's 1993 translation published by Penguin. Since I'm only up to the nineteenth essay of Book I, I've been able to use that because it's an intelligible modern version – for the most part. Although Screech claims to have followed the French somewhat more closely than English would naturally allow, he'd managed to change one sentence to such a degree that the 18th century versions were instantly comprehensible where his caused confusion.
I'm not sure whether I find Montaigne's writing of interest because it strikes a chord with me, or because I'm bored and have a vague, exceedingly amateur interest in philosophy. I suspect that if I were in a different mood, some of Montaigne's essays would have me skipping past them. I can't see how Essay XIV That the obstinate Defence of a Place, not in Reason to be defended, deserves to be punished might interest the modern world; or Essay V and perhaps Essay VI. I'm fairly sure that it may be years before I ever finish reading all of the Essays unless I procure a modern translation.
I started reading the Essays because I didn't want to read The Collected Short Stories of Saki to an early death from cloying excess. Ironically, I started reading them because I felt I'd had enough of Victorian and Edwardian horror stories. But now, as a diversion from Montaigne, I've been writing some reviews for ..::lvl for about the first time in three years.
Speaking of links, I've updated mine. One or two of the new ones reflect my interests de jour, and I've removed one or two others which were either defunct or, I felt, no longer interesting or relevant.
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